Capitalist Diversity and Change : Recombinant Governance and Institutional Entrepreneurs

Over the last decade, the neo-institutionalist literature on comparative capitalism has developed into an influential body of work. This book assesses this literature and proposes a major re-orientation of the field. It critiques many aspects of this work and finds a way of modelling how creative actors trying to achieve change — institutional entrepreneurs — tackle these constraints. Central to the account is the concept of governance, as it is by recombining governance mechanisms that these entrepreneurs must achieve their goals. In seeking how to analyse the spaces in which they operate, the book criticises and deconstructs some dominant approaches in socio-political analysis: to typologies, to elective affinity and complementarity, to path dependence. It develops a theory of governance modes, which includes potentially decomposing them into their core components. Finally, it proposes a reorientation of the neo-institutionalist research programme to take more account of detailed diversity and potentiality for change. The book is primarily theoretical, but it makes liberal use of examples, particularly from studies of local economic development and politics.1. Neoinstitutional Analysis and Comparative Capitalism 1 2. Typologies of Capitalism 25 3. Wahlverwandschaft, Complementarity, and the Theoretical Utility of Institutional Untidiness 46 4. Innovation and Path Dependence 74 5. A Strategy for the Analysis of Economic Governance 101 6. Recombinant Governance Mechanisms 129 7. Conclusions: A Reformed Neo-institutionalist Research Programme 151 References 163 Index 17